Nottingham Forest’s appeal against four-point deduction for breaking spending rules will take place tomorrow – amid club’s furious statement slamming referees’ chiefs

Nottingham Forest‘s appeal against their four-point deduction for breaking spending rules will be heard on Wednesday.

In the week Forest stunned the football world by appearing to question the integrity of VAR official Stuart Attwell following their 2-0 defeat at Everton, their attention now turns to boosting their chances of Premier League survival.

Forest were penalised four points for failing to stay in line with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability regulations, which has left them a single point above the bottom three. 

Forest’s next game is at home to champions Manchester City on April 28, before they face fellow strugglers Sheffield United and Burnley in two of their final three matches of the season.

Premier League clubs can lose £105m over three seasons – £35m per campaign – but Forest’s maximum loss was only permitted to be £61m because they spent two years of the assessment period in the Championship. 

The Midlands outfit will have to shift focus from their ongoing brouhaha in the wake of a 2-0 defeat to fellow relegation strugglers Everton

The club – owned by Evangelos Marinakis (pictured) – released a statement on Sunday questioning VAR Stuart Attwell’s integrity

The league’s rules state any appeals process should ‘conclude no later than and if possible some time before 24 May’ – five days after the season finishes, but Forest will now have an outcome before then.

Earlier this month, under-pressure Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo called the situation ‘a mess’, with Everton also docked six points this term and awaiting the outcome of appeals.

‘It can affect the integrity of the competition,’ said Nuno. ‘All these things must be solved as soon as possible.’

Meanwhile, Simon Hooper will take charge of the clash with Pep Guardiola’s team, with Peter Bankes and Gary Beswick in the VAR room.